Promise
by authorincognito
Summary: Because, as Annabeth knows, promises never quite turn out the way they are planned.


Author's notes- contains some dialogue from The Last Olympian.

How They Are Formed

* * *

(I promise I won't let anything hurt you.)

She layed curled up in her newfounded hiding place, hoping to get at least one night's sleep. It had been nearly a month since she had run away from home, and she has begun to feel the effects of a child who has gone without food for a long while. But she'll hold out for a little while more. Gods know she can't go back to that place.

Her heartbeat quickens as she hears a noise outside her area of concealment. Her small hand inches toward the hammer she had found in a middle of a deserted ally way not too far back, and prepares herself for battle.

The tin covering her hiding place is moved, and she launches herself at the potential attacker. She barely notices a voice say " Whoa" before a boy grabs her wrist before she can hit him, however, and she finds herself kicking and screaming in a fit of terror. Monsters, the irrational part of her brain wails, monsters!

"No more monsters! Go away!" She wails in a desperate attempt to get away from whoever is clutching her wrist.

The boy tries to hold her as she squirms even more in his arms, which is made even more difficult by the knife in his hands. She listens when he attempts to comfort her. "It's okay." The boy turns around to another girl that she hadn't seen until just now. "Thalia," he hisses, "put your shield up. You're scaring her."

The girl taps a bronze shield that she has around her wrist, and it shrinks to the size of a bracelet. She calms down a little bit. Just a little bit.

"Hey," the girl says kindly, "it's all right. We're not going to hurt you. I'm Thalia. This is Luke." She doesn't know whether or not to believe them yet. Monsters have tricked her several times before.

"Monsters!"

"No. But we know all about monsters. We fight them too." The boy named Luke says, and she pauses, suspicious. Surely they are trying to trick her.

"You're like me?" She asks, because she has to know.

Luke smiles. "Yeah. We're . . . well, it's hard to explain, but we're monster fighters." For the first time since they discovered her, her heartbeat returns to normal. "Where's your family?" And there it goes again . . .

Holding her head up high, she says, "My family hates me. They don't want me. I ran away." She notices the two of them make eye contact, and somehow she knows that they have been through the same thing.

"What's your name, kiddo?" The girl named Thalia asks softly.

"Annabeth." She replies, now certain that she's not in any danger.

Luke smiles, and she can't help but to smile back. "Nice name. I tell you what, Annabeth- you're pretty fierce. We could use a fighter like you."

Her heart swells with pride. "You could?" She asks, excitement flashing in her eyes.

"Oh, yeah." Luke says as he hands her the knife. "How'd you life a real monster-slaying weapon? This is real Celestial bronze. Works a lot better than a hammer."

She glances from the knife that she holds in one hand to the hammer she has in the other. It is simple to say which one would be more of use in a battle.

Luke continues to explain. "Knives are only for the bravest and quickest fighters. They don't have the reach or power of a sword, but they're easy to conceal and they can find weak spots in your enemy's armor. It takes a clever warrior to use a knife. I have a feeling you're pretty clever."

She smiles up at him. "I am!" She nearly shouts, after all, it is true.

Thalia smiles down at her. "We'd better get going, Annabeth." Her heart soars. Already she feels like a part of their group. Of their team. "We have a safe house on the James River. We'll get you some clothes and food." A place to be safe, food. She nearly weeps from all the happiness inside her, but then a horrible thought comes to mind.

"You're . . . you're not going to take me back to my family? Promise?"

Luke gently puts a hand on her shoulder, eyes sympathetic. "You're part of our family now. And I promise I won't let anything to hurt you. I'm not going to fail you like our families did us. Deal?"

She smiles happily. "Deal!"

Thalia grins and says, " Now, come on. We can't stay put for long!"

And so she follows her new family into the darkness.

(I promise it won't be like it used to)

She sits cross-legged on her bed, reading and re-reading a letter from her father. She can't comprhend what the letter contains. He wants her to move back in wtih them. After all he has done? She asks herself incrediously. He treated her as if she were nothing, and now he begs for her forgiveness?

Snorting in disgust, she throws the letter down on the ground. Unfolding her legs, she lies down and stares at the ceiling before her, fuming.

How _dare_ he ask her to come live with him again after how she was treated the last time. Didn't he remember _anything _that had occurred in that household whilst she was there? Didn't he remember how that awful woman that he had married had treated her like dirt, and that she certaintly preferred _her _own sons to her . . .

A part of her- an increasingly annoying part of her- said, but what if he means it? What if, after all of these years, he finally realizes that he was wrong? Wrong to blame her for the monster attacks, wrong to allow her own step-mother to treat her as if she were nothing, wrong to show favoritism to his two _mortal_ sons.

She sighs and raises herself off the bed. It _had_ been many years since she had seen her family. Perhaps they had changed for the better. She reached down and picked up the letter that she had thrown to the ground. She raises it to her eyes, and reads the last few sentences of her father's letter.

_I know that before, we weren't that nice to you, and, well . . . God, Annabeth. All I'm saying is that I want you to come home. Please. I promise that it won't be like it used to. _

She folds the letter and places it between the mattresses. Maybe going back won't be such a bad thing after all, she thinks as she walks out of the cabin to tell Chiron her plans for the school year.

(I promise I'll never leave you)

She lies comfortably by his side, content. Could it have been just a week ago, the world falling apart at their fingertips? And now everything was . . . well, everything was absolutely perfect. She had the job that she had always dreamed about, the on-going threat of Kronos was over, and she had (finally) made her best friend reallize his feelings for her.

Looking back on it, she almost laughed at all the times she had been jealous for some of the girl friends that he had in his life. He hadn't even shown romantic feelings for any of them, so why would she have been jealous? Because it is irrational, she heard a little voice say in her head. Shut up, she responds.

She hears the waves by her feet, but she knows that they will never touch her, he will make sure of that. It is so comforting, lying her at the beach in the middle of the night, the cool night air blowing her hair slightly in the wind, her new boyfriend lying next to her in the sand dunes . . .

"You know, I'd of thought that the harpies would have been out by now." His voice whispers beside of her ear.

She doesn't say anything, only shrugs.

He sighs. " You know, your not talking very much. Is everything all right?" The concern is evident in his voice, and she can't help but to feel flattered.

" Mmm-Hmm." She mumbles, eyes closed, relaxed. Could this moment be anymore perfect?

She doesn't know how much later it is when she is awoken by someone shaking her. Arms wrap around her, and she is brought aware to the fact that she is crying. In an instant, it all comes back to her. She had been standing in front of the Olympian council, and they had offered him the chance of becoming a god, and he had said _yes._ She didn't know why this upset her so, but it did, and she couldn't stop the tears that were now flowing freely from her eyes.

"What's wrong?" She hears him ask beside her, and, sobbing, she tells him.

Once she is done, he pulls her closer to him. "That didn't happen, though."

"But it almost did! You almost became a God! You almost . . . you almost left me." Her voice chokes off at the end, and his grip on her slackens.

"What? You'd honestly think that I would leave you? I would never do that." He says, almost laughing.

"Promise?" She mumbles into his shirt. He laughs.

She raises her head and sees he has a certain gleam to his eyes that made her nervous and elated. He places her face in his hands. " Annabeth Chase," he says, and she nearly laughs at his pause for dramatic effect "I promise that I will never leave you." Then he leans his head forward and kisses her, and any thought she had in her mind that told her one day he was going to leave her was swept away.

How They Are Broken

* * *

(I promise I won't let anything hurt you.)

Numb. That was the only way how to describe how she was feeling at that precise moment. Numb.

How could he have done that to her? How, after all that they had been through? He had been the one to take her in when he had found her. Well, also Thalia as well, she supposed. A sharp stab of pain centers in on her chest.

_Thalia._ She had given up her life to make sure that he was safe, and _this_ was how he repaired her? By shoving it back into her face? Well, trunk, if thinking accurately.

Had it been only five years ago when he had first discovered her? She, that small child at the end of a small street, with nothing but a hammer to protect her against the monsters? Yes, it had been, and she longed to go back to that time. Back to the time when it was just her, Thalia, and him traveling across the country, battling any monster that happened upon them. Back to the time that Thalia hadn't been transformed to a tree by her own father. Back to the time . . .

But she could never go back, no matter how hard she tried. He had chosen his path, and she had chosen her own. A path that followed the Gods, while his followed the Titans. The two were too different for them ever going back to being friends, but still, she would try. She had to try. Maybe, just maybe, she could make him see sense, and he would come back to them. To_ her_, and everything would be just as it used to be before.

Just as it used to be, she thinks almost wistfully as she pulls the bed covers up around her. Just as it used to be.

(I promise it won't be like it used to.)

She slams the suitcase shut on her bed. How could she have been so stupid? She should have known that it would have been just like before.

_Promise._ She snorts. Some promise. She had barely even been her a week before they had begun to treat her just as they did before, and she hated it. She had tried to endure it for as long as possible, but eventually she had had enough.

She had sent Chiron an iris-message the day before, so she knew that somebody from camp would be picking her up soon. She picks up her small bag of luggage, and makes her way out into the hallway outside of her bedroom.

"Annabeth." Her father calls to her behind her.

She, reluctantly, turns around. "What."

He walks up toward her. "Please don't do this. Please stay here."

But she can't stay here. Because staying here means that she would be miserable. That she would have to endure the taunts of her own family. _Family. _These people are not her family. Luke is, and he always would be.

Her decision is final. She cannot stay here, because in doing so would be suicide.

Sparing once last glance at her father, she turns back around and walks away towards the place in which she can truly call _home._

(I promise I'll never leave you)

She groans and stretches as she wakes up from her blissful sleep. Sitting up and rubbing excess sleep from her eyes, she gets ready for a new day at camp with her boyfriend.

Running out the cabin door, she make her way to cabin number three, imaganing opening the door and startling him by shouting in his ear, as he was more than likely still asleep, knowing him.

But when she gets there, he is no where to be found. She had seen him last night, though. They had been excited to spend two whole weeks together without any interruptions. At least, not any mortal interruptions, that is. He couldn't have just walked out in the middle of the night and left, could he? He had been so excited . . .

Staring around at the cabin, she begins to feel the cold claws of panic beginning to engulf her, to strangle her in her fear. There is no sign of a struggle, but the place seems to clean.

Terrified, she runs out the door and searches for him. He must still be here. He must still be here. He's just playing a joke on her. That's all it was. A joke to begin their weeks of their time together. Yes, that's all it was.

But no matter how hard she tries, he is nowhere to be found. Nowhere. He is just gone. Vanished into thin air. He is gone. For how long, she doesn't know, but she will find him. No matter what happens, she will find him. Because he made a promise to her, and even though he broke it -perhaps unintentionally- she intends to fix it. Because if she doesn't, she won't know what to do.

How They Are Mended

* * *

(I promise I won't let anything hurt you)

He lays there, dying, and suddenly everything makes sense. The prophecy, her feelings for him.

As if reading her mind, he asks her if she ever loved him. She tells him no, all in the while the image of the boy kneeling next to her clear as day in her mind.

He nods his head, and speaks to the boy next to her, but she hardly hears any of it.

Soon after, he breathes his last breath, and he is gone. Gone forever.

Now, days after, she wishes that she had told him that she forgives him. For everything he had done. For how many times that he had hurt her. Because even if he doesn't know it, he has brought full circle the promise that he had made years ago. They had been a family. They were a family. And they always would be, no matter what happened.

He may have been gone, but she would never forget him. He had made many mistakes in his life, but in the end he had played the role of a hero, for the whole world and for her. And for that she would never ever forget him and the promise that he had made.

(I promise it won't be like it used to)

Taking a deep breath, she walks toward her family on the hilltop. True, part of her is afraid that they will hurt her again, but deep down she knows that isn't true.

They look . . ._ happy _to see her. As if they now truly regretted their treatment of her, and now they want a second chance to treat her like she's part of the family.

And she'll let them. She trusts them enought now, that she believes it. Truly believes it. She doesn't know yet how life will be with them, but she is willing to give them the chance. Because if she doesn't try, then she'll never know, and she hates not knowing something. And she has to try. They may treat her like dirt yet again, but she doesn't belive that that is the case. They have changed, she is certain of it now.

True, her last stay with them hadn't gone over smoothly, but she is willing to forgive them for that and give them another chance.

She walks up to them, all of their faces beaming with smiles, and their joy is infectious. Smiling back, she lets them lead her to the car that will lead them to their house and where they could finally be a family. A true family.

(I promise I'll never leave you)

Deep down in the cold and dark depths of Tartarus, she clings herself close to him. Releshing in any warmth that he may provide. He has fallen asleep by now, but still he clutches to her as if his life depended on it. And she supposes, in a way, that it does, because even if no monsters attack them, there is still the ongoing threat of hypothermia. Teeth chattering, she moves herself closer to him, burying her head in his chest.

They had been in Tartarus for . . . hours? Days? Weeks? She doesn't know and truly doesn't care. Because he is here beside her. She found him again. She smiles inspite of the cold and the roars of the monsters in the distance that will surely stop at nothing to kill them. But for right now, she is content with how things are.

Sure, they are in the deepest, most darkest part of the underworld with the possibility of them dying any second, but that doesn't matter to her. He is here beside her, and that is all that matters, because they are together. And that is how she plans on keeping it until the day that she dies. Apart, she is nothing. Together, she feels like she can stop anything, even Gaea, who must surely be watching them with the greatest interest, waiting for the time in which they mess up. But they won't. Because as long as he is by her side, she can do anything. Even keep him by her side for the rest of her life. And even when and if he is snatched by the cold fingers of death, she will follow him. How soon, she doesn't know, but she will come to him. Because as long as their together, nothing bad could ever happen to her.

She sinks her head even more into his chest, and his arms tighten around her. _Together_. She quite likes the sound of that.


End file.
